Kinder drops claim he is acting in his official capacity

Peter Kinder has amended his motion and no-longer claims he is representing the state of Missouri in his publicity stunt lawsuit against the US government. As a result, the Missouri AG Koster has dropped his objections.

Although Kinder may sincerely believe the conservative base of the GOP supports using the courts and lawsuits rather than the ballot box to change federal law, the question still remains, “Why did Kinder insist for so long he was acting in his official capacity rather than as a private citizen”?

In my opinion, it is obvious this was never about any hopes Kinder had of succeeding in actually getting activist judges to change federal law. Kinder knows his lawsuit will go no-where but then again, Kinder doesn’t mind tying up the courts so they don’t have time to deal with issues such as illegal immigration or other issues not as important to Kinder as his own self-serving publicity stunt. This was about trying to insist Robin Carnahan join him in her official capacity as Secretary of State. Otherwise, Kinder would have dropped the claim he was acting in his official capacity and the publicity stunt would have been progressing more quickly. While Ms Carnahan knows the Missouri AG represents Missouri on legal matters Kinder was hoping to make this a campaign issue. Presumably, Kinder thought his conservative base as well as moderates would say, “I don’t care about the law and what it says, I want the Secretary of State to overstep her authority and violate the Missouri Constitution just like Peter Kinder has done”. 

Yes, Kinder’s publicity stunt will tie-up the legal system, waste tax-payer money, be self-serving, and generally be an attempt to claim power Kinder doesn’t have.  However, Kinder and Blunt were trying to get Robin Carnahan to also follow Kinder in disregarding Missouri law or they could then use the publicity stunt as a campaign issue. This publicity stunt is a huge waste of tax-payer money. But then again, when has tax-payer money and the law ever mattered to Kinder or his protégé’s from South East Missouri such as Nathan Cooper and Rod Jetton?

Now, by dropping the claim Kinder is acting officially (forget it was illegal) Kinder and Roy Blunt lose the ability to use the publicity stunt directly as an issue against Robin Carnahan. I guess Kinder ran out of excuses to keep asking for more time.

Is it too much to ask Kinder to use his position as Lt. Governor to do things such as promote jobs, energy, infrastructure development, and improve education?

The answer is yes. Kinder doesn’t talk about these things and definitely he doesn’t do anything about the real issues. Instead the Tweeter-in-Chief engages in publicity stunts and uses tax-payer money to help out himself and his donors.

h/t Turner Report